


rhaegar targaryen

by polarisized



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: :(, Angst, Sad with a Happy Ending, i love rhaegar, not a spite fic, projecting 😁😁, rhaella 🥲, this is another vent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:49:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27667751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polarisized/pseuds/polarisized
Relationships: Rhaegar Targaryen / angst
Kudos: 2





	rhaegar targaryen

rhaegar targaryen had very conflicted feelings about his father.

he hated his father, so, so much, for what he done to his mother. when he saw the bruises and bite marks that adorned his mother, he grew so angry he felt like weeping. it was a daily occurrence.

rhaegar targaryen was unsure about how he felt in regards to his father.

aerys targaryen the second had suffered a great deal. rhaegar knew he had changed after he returned home from duskendale, it was obvious. his father had always been particularly... strange, but now it was worse. he was so paranoid, so scared of everyone and so fueled with hatred... and rhaella suffered for it. 

rhaegar targaryen thought he hated his father.

rhaegar never thought that he would hate his father. as a child, rhaegar thought everything was perfect. he had his books, few friends, and his family. although the thought it would’ve been nice if he had a dragon, or a little sibling. he wouldn’t get one until he was much older, and had his own children. that didn’t make him love viserys any less. the little silver haired boy with the glistening purple eyes was so sweet, so kind. 

rhaegar didn’t know him all that well it would seem. he was not so sweet. 

rhaegar targaryen believed he loved his father.

he hated aerys. no he didn’t, aerys was his father. he couldn’t hate his father. he loved his father. but he didn’t.

aerys didn’t love him. rhaegar would have liked to believe that he once did, but he, evidently didn’t anymore.  
rhaegar didn’t care. he didn’t love his father, he didn’t need his father, only his mother.

rhaegar could tell that aerys hated him because of the way aerys looked at him.  
the way aerys never called rhaegar by his name anymore, it was always ‘son.’

the way aerys’ purple eyes followed every step he took. 

rhaegar noticed every distasteful look aerys threw at his wife, his children. his mother.

some part of him wanted to strangle aerys, to watch the life drain from his face and his once purple eyes fade.

but he couldn’t. no matter how much he hated him, there would always be another part that loved him.

and rhaegar hated it.

rhaegar didn’t need his father.

he could stay on dragonstone, far away from aerys and his tormenting gaze, with his wife and his beloved children.

rhaegar adored them. 

little rhaenys, her bright purple eyes and her soft black hair, and aegon, the baby with white hair and dark purple eyes to match. 

rhaegar felt safe so long as his children were kept far away from his father.

he wished he could’ve convinced his mother to join them. she deserved to be away from him, too.  
and little viserys.

rhaegar thought he could get away from his father.

he couldn’t.

rhaegar believed he could get rid of his father.

it was a foolish thought, truly.

he believed, that if he met with the other great lords at harrenhal, they could successfully take his father off the throne. rhaegar knew that the other lords knew his father was declining. nobody had seen him in ages.

aerys came to harrenhal. why did he come? he refused to leave the red keep any other time. did he know?

rhaegar targaryen was afraid of his father.

his long fingernails and even longer hair and his thin frame, the scratches that ran up his arms from the iron throne.

damnit.

rhaegar targaryen had thought that, for once in his life, he would be free from his father.

he was wrong.

elia came to harrenhal with rhaegar. he was glad. he would have some company, at least. elia understood the fear that rhaegar had of his father, because she was scared of him too.

elia and rhaegar were friends. they were not exactly husband and wife, though. just friends.  
elia was a dutiful wife and she desperately wanted to satisfy aerys’ demands, to not disappoint her family. elia martell was a dutiful wife and a wonderful mother. elia knew how to listen.

during the tourney, rhaegar’s mind was clear.

thank the gods for that.

he wasn’t sure exactly what was happening when he laid the crown of winter roses in lyanna’s lap. 

perhaps his head hurt. he wasn’t entirely sure.  
he felt the way robert baratheon’s hateful gaze burned into his back. but what was he going to do? harm the crown prince?

little did rhaegar know, that was exactly what robert would do.

all the sounds returned when aerys commanded rhaegar to go find the knight of the laughing tree.

“why did he send me?”

rhaegar couldn’t quite figure that out.

one part of his brain said that, obviously aerys wanted rhaegar gone, and the knight of the laughing tree would make rhaegar disappear for him.

the other part said, aerys trusted rhaegar only.

he knew which one was true, and that was painful.

rhaegar did eventually find the knight of the laughing tree. 

it was lady lyanna stark, to his surprise.

she asked him to promise not to tell anyone.

he did.

rhaegar was so tired.

he felt like he deserved to rest.

he couldn’t, though.

the realm was falling apart in his fathers hands, someone had to try to fix it.

no,

rhaegar decided.

if westeros must collapse, let it be at my fathers hands. i want him to feel the despair my mother had to feel.

rhaegar was so tired. 

lyanna said she could tell.

arthur did too.

suddenly the crown prince had a sick idea. a terrible one. but he so desperately wanted to act on it.

he spoke to elia about it. 

he even asked her to come with him.

she refused. she couldn’t leave her children.

she understood why he wanted to leave, but she was disappointed in him at the same time.

“when this is all over, i will come back.” 

he had promised.

it was a lie.

rhaegar took lyanna and his white knight and fled. 

they took shelter in dorne, a tower ironically named ‘the tower of joy.’

all it brought was pain.

rhaegar heard news of what his father done to rickard stark and his eldest son.

it made him sick.

he felt terrible. 

he couldn’t imagine how lyanna felt.

then, he realized, the realm was going to collapse.

house targaryen would fall.

rhaegar rode to the trident to fix what his father had done, adorned in red rubies. 

he came face to face with his towering cousin, robert.

rhaegar didn’t want to fight robert.

though rhaegar managed to land a few damaging blows on robert, it was the baratheon who would succeed. 

rhaegar’s chest caved in, and the red rubies spilled out of his breastplate mixed with blood.

rhaegar targaryen was so tired.

he breathed out a word, and everything went quiet. 

it was so dark, so cold.

rhaegar had no choice but to accept death.

there was no surviving what happened to him.

he could finally rest.

when rhaegar opened his eyes, he saw the sky. bright blue, dappled with clouds. he stared, confused.

he sat up.

what he saw was astonishing. 

summerhall, in all its glory.

it was complete, not reduced to ash. the walls were still there.

a large shadow swept overhead.

dragons.

dragons? 

dragons!

rhaegar never thought he would see one.

then, as he shakily climbed to his feet, he realized.

he was dead.

rhaegar targaryen could finally rest.


End file.
